UPDATE! NASA Discovers a NEW FORM OF LIFE!

what a flop of news.....

 

that is pretty true. kind of amazing really..

 

I was hoping they'd find sea lions and krill underneath the icecap of Europa!

 

Bros this is actually very big news.
All life forms that we know of (until now) rely on the same DNA structural blueprint. This naturally led people to believe that A) there is a common ancestry for every living species on Earth and B) that life could only be possible under very strict conditions.
These microbes have arsenic based DNA. We have never observed anything like them, ever. We didn't even have proof that life could exist outside of the phosphorus based DNA structure.

This news means one of three things:

1) Life originated more than once on earth
2) Life originated elsewhere and made its way here somehow
3) We've discovered a completely new branch of the evolutionary tree that requires some type of explanation.

This is relevant to NASA, because you have to realize that in our search for life "out there" we only look for planets that are very similar to Earth. This has now been revealed to be a massive assumption.

If you were expecting something bigger than even this you've been reading too many comic books.

 

This was so good it needed repped publicly.

I was reading about Venus for astronomy the other night, and how inhospitable it was, with it's ridiculous atmospheric pressure and 90% carbon-dioxide environment.
And I just pictured this badass dragon, with a rocky-metallic exoskeleton, flying through the raging winds of gas like a king.
This totally makes my daydream seem mildly plausible =P

 

lol That's the exact sentence that went through my head when I saw this, seriously.

I can completely appreciate the finding. I just found the lack of substance a little amusing. It's like when you were young and excited, opening a christmas present from your parents, only to find out that it's socks or a sweater.

 

It doesn't lack substance, it lacks an explosive headline.

 

Thank you for explaining Geodude. (if you dont mind me calling you that) i was under the impression it was just some stupid finding. because i did not watch the thing on nasa today.

This has totally blown my mind reading that.

and there is no sarcasm. i re read this and it sounded sarcastic but i really mean it, this is great stuff.

 

couldnt that mean there are creatures out there that dont abide to our laws of physics and such?

 

Several minutes into the video the woman on the left explains that it is obvious that arsenic has taken the place of phosphorus in some of the cell's metabolic functions, but they haven't mapped the genome, nor do they know whether the substitutions were in the mitochondria, RNA, DNA, etc.

Arsenic is lower on the atomic chart (fewer valence electrons) and under ordinary circumstances is not as efficient at metabolic processes as phosphorus, but in isolated environments where phosphorus availability is reduced, arsenic is a workable substitute.

Just a guess, but I would say it mutated from an organism with phosphorus-based genes and natural selection gave arsenic-based variant the competitive edge in those special environments.

It may indicate the potential for bacteria from Earth to mutate and survive transplant from Earth to hostile (to humans) environments on other celestial bodies (Io, Europa, Venus, Titan, etc...)

 

They were able to grow bacteria in the absence of phosphorus, which is extraordinary. Doesn't that mean the the arsenic would have had to substitute phosphorus in DNA, RNA and wherever phosphorus is found in essential metabolic products the cell? Our previous knowledge was that replication and transcription of DNA always requires phosphorus, as do a number of crucial cell processes such as amino acid synthesis, so it seems to me this species must really be different genetically.

 

There was phosphorus in the organism, just not as much.
It is unusual that any phosphorus would be substituted by arsenic. There is no other known example on earth.

 

Lame


I was kind of hoping it would have been at least something to do with one of the moons in the solar system, that would have been cool.


This kind of sounds like they are getting ahead of themselves, doesnt sound like they've done enough study.

I dont see how arsenic could be used to replace phosphorous in the dna/rna chains

 

.

 

Because they are extremely similar.
In fact the similarity is precisely what makes arsenic so poisonous under normal circumstances.

That said, I don't see how this could occur naturally.

 

I agree. The book of Revelation describes some really weird, bizarre creatures, perhaps metaphor, but then again, would we be guilty of species-centrism if we denied the possibility of bizarre creatures before the throne of God as they travel from their world to the heavenly realm?

I disagree. Woman is said to be in God's image too, but she is somewhat different from man. And mankind around the world is rich in phenotypic diversity as well. Maybe our error is in not understanding what it means to be made in God's image. The Bible says that the Earth is the Lords and that the Heavens are his. Man may think the universe centers around himself, but God clearly says otherwise.

The Bible was written to a simple pastoral people on planet earth and does not reveal all that God knows. We know that the author of the gospel of John admitted that he greatly abridged the story of Jesus for the sake of necessary brevity.
As for the "heavens", the apostle Paul spoke of ascending to the "Third Heaven", a realm beyond the sky, beyond the stars. Physicists are now telling us of the likelihood of countless unseen dimensions of reality that extend beyond the known realm of space and time that we inhabit.

Jewish scriptures and Christian holy books celebrate humanity as something special, but so do many humanists. But assumptions that we are alone in the universe or that aliens are human is contrary to these holy books.

I agree. There is a case to be made for the likelihood of convergent evolution however. Mammals have marsupial homologues, that is creatures that occupy similar ecological niches (predators, herbivores) and similar anatomy but radically different genetics.

Why do you assume that alien life even has DNA? Not all organisms on earth do.

The human liver, within reasonable limits can purge itself of heavy metals, but I guess it depends on how much of this creature you eat? Good question!

 

Most of the sci fi books that I consider above par include examples of races that don't fit into that normal mode. There are a couple of examples in the back of my mind, but for the life of me I can't remember what book or author they are from.... A sign I've read way way too many books... lol

Considering the way we treat various species here, I really hope they are toxic... less chance of someone deciding they would make nice meals... lol

 

Unless you are counting viruses, which you shouldn't be as they do not reproduce themselves, I do believe this statement is wrong.

 

Viruses reproduce by RNA and are admittedly dependent on DNA-based life forms, but it should not be assumed that DNA is the ONLY way to code life across the universe.

Same with Mitochondria. Currently an organelle, but may have been an ancient symbiotic fusion with other simple single-celled organisms.